Oliver Holden

18 September 1765—4 September 1844


Oliver Holden, portrait by Ethan Allen Greenwood, preserved at the Old State House, Boston; reprinted in The Holden Genealogy, vol. 1 (1923).

OLIVER HOLDEN was born 18 Sept. 1765 at Shirley, Massachusetts, son of Nehemiah Holden and Elizabeth Mitchell. Some time before 1780, the family moved to Pepperell, MA. In 1782, at age 17, he was recruited to join the U.S. marines:

He enlisted under [Lieutenant Reed] as a marine on board the Dean frigate for the term of one year, and received a bounty of ten dollars. He joined the frigate in Boston Harbor, under the command of Captain Nicholson, who was afterwards tried by court martial, and Captain Manley then took command of her, and her name was changed to the Hague. She sailed in August on a cruise among the West Indies Islands. They captured four British prizes and made the port of St. Pierre, in Martinique. The morning after they sailed from this port, after a short conflict, they captured a British letter of Marque, called Zac. Bailey, of twenty guns. He, Deponant, was placed on board the ship of which Captain Daniels was prize master, and Audebot and Dana mates. They returned to Boston where they arrived the latter part of the winter of 1783. They remained on board some time; the vessel was discharged, and he from the hands of George Richards, who had returned in the frigate. Richards was chaplain and acted as assistant captain’s clerk.[1]

Oliver was paid for his service through 10 May 1783, at which time he was discharged. Shortly after his discharge, he attended a singing school, which inspired him to start his own singing schools. His formal musical training was minimal, but in the years to follow he would develop into a capable composer, musician, and music editor. His first published hymn tune, ALSTEAD, appeared in The Federal Harmony (1788). In 1789, he was granted the opportunity to direct the music for a celebratory visit of George Washington in Boston:

A triumphal arch was built across the street from the Old State House, under which the procession passed. When the President reached a certain place, Holden’s male choir—the Independent Musical Society—burst forth with the hymn:

Great Washington, the hero’s come:
Each heart exulting hears the sound;
See! thousands their deliverer throng,
And shout him welcome all around.
Now in full chorus burst the song
And shout the deeds of Washington.

The noted guest was visibly affected by the reception at this point. Tears were seen streaming from his eyes as with uncovered head he left his carriage and went into the State House, to a temporary balcony, where he stood to gratify the throng.[2]

After Washington’s death, 14 December 1799, Holden composed a memorial collection, Sacred Dirges: Hymns and Anthems Commemorative of the Death of General George Washington (1800).

After his military service, Holden moved to Charlestown, MA, adjacent to (and not yet part of) Boston, which became his lifelong home. In 1787, upon building and selling a house near Bow Street, he launched a career in real estate, one of his many ventures. At Charlestown, he met Nancy Rand; they married 12 May 1791 and together they had six children.

His first foray into music publishing occured in 1792, when he compiled a small booklet of tunes, American Harmony, containing eight tunes and four anthems. His most famous tune, CORONATION, appeared the following year in The Union Harmony (1793). In total, he compiled and/or edited over a dozen musical collections. His earliest works follow the European tradition of tune writing, but after 1800 his work started to shift: “In later tune books such as The Charlestown Collection (1803), . . . Holden occasionally cultivated a more folk-influenced style, perhaps to appeal to growing rurally active denominations such as the Baptists, to whose religion Holden had converted.”[3]

In 1800, he donated the land for what would become the First Baptist Church of Charlestown, a split from the First Congregational Church. The meeting house was dedicated in 1801, with an address by Jedediah Morse, a dedicatory anthem by Oliver Holden (“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised”) and a dedicatory hymn (“Let flowing numbers sweetly rise”). Only a few years later, in 1809, Holden led the church in another split, forming the Second Baptist Church. Holden was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1818 to 1833, and he supported the annexation of Charlestown to Boston. Holden died 4 September 1844. His organ, on which he composed CORONATION, and his portrait by Ethan Allen Greenwood are preserved at the Old State House in Boston. The tune is considered to be the oldest American hymn tune in continuous circulation.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
2 March 2020

  1. Eben Putnam, The Holden Genealogy, vol. 1 (Boston: 1923), p. 295.

  2. Abram English Brown, “Oliver Holden: The Composer of Coronation,” New England Magazine, p. 710.

  3. Richard Crawford & Nym Cooke, “Oliver Holden,” Grove Music Online (20 January 2001).

Featured Tunes:

CORONATION

Publications of Hymns and Tunes:

Note: Some collections do not bear his name but have been attributed to him based on their contents.

American Harmony (1792): PDF

The Union Harmony

Vol. 1 (1793): Archive.org
Vol. 2 (1793): Archive.org
Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (1796): Archive.org
Vol. 1, 3rd ed. (1801)

The Massachusetts Compiler of Theoretical and Practical Elements of Sacred Vocal Music (1795): PDF 1 | PDF 2

Laus Deo! The Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony

6th ed. (1797): Archive.org
7th ed. (1800)
8th ed. (1803)

Sacred Dirges: Hymns and Anthems Commemorative of the Death of General George Washington (1800): PDF

The Modern Collection of Sacred Music (1800): Archive.org

Plain Psalmody, or Supplementary Music (1800): Archive.org

The Charlestown Collection of Sacred Songs (1803): Archive.org

The Young Convert’s Companion

1st ed. (1806): PDF
2nd ed. (1812)

Occasional Pieces Adapted to the Opening of a Place of Worship (1807): WorldCat

The Suffolk Selection of Church Musick (1807): WorldCat

Billings and Holden Collection of Ancient Psalmody (1836): WorldCat

see also:

The Federal Harmony (1788): PDF 1 | PDF 2 | PDF 3

Related Resources:

Abram English Brown, “Oliver Holden: The Composer of Coronation,” New England Magazine, vol. 16 (1897), pp. 708–719: HathiTrust

Eben Putnam, The Holden Genealogy, vol. 1 (Boston: 1923), pp. 294–300: Archive.org

Frank J. Metcalf, “Oliver Holden,” American Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music (NY: Abingdon Press, 1925), pp. 124–34: Archive.org

David W. McCormick, Oliver Holden: Composer and Anthologist, dissertation (Union Theological Seminary, 1963).

Karl D. Kroeger, The Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony and Sacred Music in America, 1786–1803, dissertation (Brown University, 1976).

David W. Music, “Oliver Holden (1765–1844): An Early Baptist Composer in America,” Singing Baptists (Nashville: Church Street, 1994), pp. 17–25.

David W. Music, Oliver Holden (1765–1844): Selected Works, Music of the New American Nation, vol. 13 (NY: Garland, 1998).

David W. Music & Paul A. Richardson, “Oliver Holden,” I Will Sing the Wondrous Story (Macon, GA: Mercer, 2008), pp. 271–273.

Hymn Tune Index:
https://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/default.asp

Oliver Holden, Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/person/Holden_Oliver

Richard Crawford & Nym Cooke, “Oliver Holden,” Grove Music Online (20 January 2001):
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13201

Karl Kroeger, “Oliver Holden,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/o/oliver-holden